When Taste Betrays

Last week during the 4th of July break, I got a craving hankering for something I've not eaten in years, dare I say eons. That something is oft associated with summer and picnics as well as trailer parks and sudden myocardial infarctions. Of course, I was pining for this:

Not really

Like so many other desires cravings that are not good for us, I quashed the desire to go get a bucket o'chicken. Until tonight.

With the Boy at work shilling shirts at the Old Gravy, the stunningly patient and mighty fine SML recalled my craving and said I should go fill it. This was all kinds of strange, especially coming from her. Why? Like a weird uncle who stares at your friends too, the fact that my good wife did a brief stint at a KFC as a teen-ager. She barely speaks of it and the mere mention of their mashed potatoes, particularly the gravy, sends her into spasms of borderline hysteria. However, since she opened the window, after some internal debate, I was in.

This would prove to be a mistake. Yes, that first bite of chicken brought back a veritable tsunami of memories. I was transported back to picnics with my family at Eldorado Park, where the bucket o'chicken was a staple. Those were fun memories. And then I took a bite of my mashed potatoes. Yep, the gravy tasted exactly the same. And then I remembered what that taste reminded me of...chemicals. Cleanser to be exact. I've never eaten cleanser but I'm fairly certain that the gravy and its aftertaste are precisely the same as cleanser. As I sit here writing this post, I am reminded that the gravy has the same effect as a cleanser as well. You have been warned.

A lesson relearned tonight. Like our other senses, taste is capable of evoking so many things like memories and feelings. Sometimes it's better not to wake those memories. Duly noted.